Chapter: 226
Charlotte is strong.
This was a fact everyone was well aware of.
And now, standing before Charlotte once again was someone who had truly felt that truth firsthand.
A girl with red hair and healthy skin.
Karanidis Poseus.
Her legs trembled like aspen leaves.
She had already rolled on the ground after clashing with Charlotte’s sword more than ten times.
Thanks to that, her body was almost in tatters.
“Hah, hah.”
Gasping for breath, she struggled to lift her head.
There, she saw Charlotte engaged with a man.
He was Aria Gramalte, someone who seemed to blend into the background, avoiding interaction with others even in the Special Class.
Despite not standing out in the elite class, he was performing better than expected.
He was actually blocking Charlotte’s sword head-on.
His sword was quite peculiar.
Surrounded by light, it was sometimes destructive, sometimes swift, and sometimes incredibly fluid.
As if he had lived countless lives in countless ways.
The techniques and know-how contained within him felt strangely disparate.
Yet somehow, they combined to create the remarkable Aria Gramalte.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
Karanidis had never imagined anyone could ever stand up to Charlotte directly.
Maybe, just maybe, with Aria by her side, they stood a chance.
Chaeeng!
Just as she thought this and tried to catch her breath, Aria’s light scattered upon colliding with Charlotte’s sword.
As the light dispersed, Aria leaned back dramatically, lowering his guard.
“The output....”
With his opposite arm wrapped around the fist holding his sword, Aria opened his eyes in a delicate manner.
“Aria!”
Seizing that opportunity, Charlotte lunged at Aria.
Seeing this, Karanidis threw herself between them.
Zheung!
A water shield erupted on impact with Charlotte’s sword, only to be shredded to pieces.
However, thankfully, it prevented Aria’s sword from reaching Charlotte.
Behind Karanidis, Aria gathered the light back into his sword and readied it again to strike Charlotte.
The move was cleverly timed, taking advantage of Karanidis’s shield blocking Charlotte’s view.
Unfortunately, Charlotte made it all too easy to counterattack.
“Opportunity!”
Karanidis thought that now was her chance as she threw herself at Charlotte.
However, the sheer air pressure from Charlotte’s sword sent Karanidis flying back.
Despite the odds stacked against her, Charlotte showed not a hint of complacency.
Karanidis bit down on her lip.
Seriously, how could a monster like this even exist?
“...I owe you.”
At that moment, she heard Aria’s voice.
Aria had always regarded Karanidis with indifference, but today seemed different.
“What do you mean? If you pass out, I’m done for!”
Karanidis answered brightly, her spirits lifted.
“I’ll do whatever I can!”
Relying solely on her resilience, she kept charging at Charlotte without any fancy tricks.
She understood that, in Charlotte’s eyes, she was nothing more than a boar.
Had it not been for Aria, she would have retired ages ago.
Thus, she focused on fulfilling her role.
“If the output’s unstable, I’ll buy some time.”
After all, everyone has their part to play.
Even a boar can buy a second’s time.
“Getting in there is my specialty.”
In love or battle, she preferred a straightforward approach.
Just then, Aria glanced at Karanidis for a brief moment.
“So you’re that kind of person.”
Aria quietly murmured to himself.
Upon hearing this, Karanidis cheerfully retorted,
“Yes, that’s exactly who I am! So, let’s get to know each other better from here on out!”
He was a lone wolf in the Special Class, after all.
She figured it was a good time to forge a bond.
“Enough chit-chat. We’ve had our share of that.”
However, Charlotte began to advance toward them again.
Aria shifted his focus from Karanidis back to Charlotte.
“...Is this the influence of Kraush?”
He murmured again as his sword began to glow anew, this time a little brighter for some reason.
Suddenly, Charlotte halted, her gaze lifting slowly to the sky.
Kuguguung!
At that moment, the entire mountain shook as if an earthquake had struck.
Karanidis quickly regained her stance.
He was merely preparing for the next move.
“Just like a friend of Kraush.”
Saying that, Charlotte felt Aria’s light-infused sword swing close beside her.
Charlotte tilted her head slightly, dodging the attack while chatting.
“Still, you seem to have some unfounded knowledge about Kraush.”
Before she knew it, her leg landed squarely in Aria’s side.
Having been caught off-guard, he toppled over, twisting away as he crashed to the ground.
At that very instant, something bound Charlotte’s leg.
It was a light thread.
Just as Aria reached her, the tether connected.
Thud!
In that moment, she felt as if an iron weight lodged itself at the end of the light thread.
The light thread attached to Aria’s sword sank deeply into the ground.
Just as Charlotte moved to sever the light thread binding her,
A tickle—
Instinctively, she swung her sword to the left.
Crack!
A face suddenly emerged from her left.
Kraush had used Invisibility.
Despite using Invisibility, Charlotte felt the tension as she deftly evaded the blade, striking Haring’s wrist with her sword grip.
With that blow, Haring instantly recognized her right wrist was crushed.
In that moment, teetering precariously on the brink of breaking.
She desperately gripped the dagger in her other hand.
In a flash, her left arm propelled forward.
Wrapping her left hand around the right hand gripping the dagger,
Haring focused all her strength to drive the dagger downwards.
“Ugh!”
Charlotte was caught off-guard and didn’t expect a follow-up from the now-broken right hand.
So, she was a fraction late in blocking with her sword.
Shwaak!
At that moment, icy venom from Haring’s dagger pierced into Charlotte’s blade.
Charlotte’s eyes opened slightly.
With a whirlwind,
Aslan, plummeting from the sky, unleashed a brilliant orb of heat.
Despite its small size, the power contained surpassed that of Parba Sola.
In the most desperate situation,
Charlotte wrapped her unarmed hand around Haring’s neck.
Kwang!
She immediately slammed her into the ground.
“Gah!”
With no time to react, Haring’s consciousness slipped away instantly.
Meanwhile, heat rolled in dreadfully close overhead.
Charlotte’s sword surged with aura once more.
In one swift motion, she redirected her blade to intercept Aslan’s bright orb descending toward her.
Ziiing!
The sheer sharpness of Charlotte’s sword cleaved the orb, splitting it in two.
The pulsing energy of the orb scattered wildly, melting into the ground, releasing an acrid smoke.
However, what the orb melted was more than just the earth.
The poison that had recently frozen Charlotte’s sword melded into the radiant orb.
Even Charlotte’s aura could not withstand such impactful power without sustaining damage.
As a direct consequence—
Crack!
A fissure appeared on her blade.
Her aura might have held up, but her sword was not as resilient.
The moment Charlotte recognized this, she immediately altered her sword’s trajectory.
Before she knew it, Haring’s dagger was firmly in her grasp.
“Yikes!”
Aslan only realized too late when he summoned his protective spell.
The dagger was already inches from his face.
Clang!
The dagger burst through his protective spell, plunging deep into Aslan’s side.
The force propelled him into the air, crashing into the distant forest.
In the blink of an eye, the situation had turned dire.
The once busy forest was now eerily quiet.
Charlotte stood there with not a single injury to show for it.
With the light threads binding him, Aria lay motionless on the ground.
Haring was buried underground, completely unconscious.
Aslan, nursing injuries along with a harsh landing, could no longer move.
“Phew.”
Charlotte exhaled, a light sigh escaping her lips.
Thud!
Without warning, her sword splintered apart, shattering completely.
Clang!
As she stared blankly at her empty sword hilt,
Charlotte realized she had never lost her sword since coming to Rahern Academy.
Yet today was her first time witnessing her sword break.
“Who does this fighting style remind me of?”
Charlotte squinted, a moment of recognition dawning.
At that moment, something softly nudged her from behind.
In an instant, her senses, dulled by the battle, flicked back to life as she turned.
There stood Karanidis, battered but still standing,
Panting as she poised her fist, yet utterly devoid of any power.
She had simply extended her arm in a gesture of challenge.
That was all she could manage at this point.
Karanidis was barely able to stand, leaving her completely unable to mount any real offense against Charlotte.
However, when Karanidis’s fist connected with Charlotte, it marked a first.
Charlotte blinked in surprise, having finally allowed a hit through.
And as Karanidis crumbled to the ground, it signaled the complete retirement of all second-years.
“Hmmm.”
With a short huff, Charlotte wisely surveyed the area, lifting the corners of her mouth.
“Our little friends did okay.”
That was the highest praise she could muster.